Step by Step
by hellosaidi
Summary: This is basically continuing from around episode 12 or 13 of season 7. It just follows Mer and Der as they battle for a baby as well as keeping up with their jobs. So yeah enjoy and please review!
1. Chapter 1

**So this is the first chapter, let me know what you think. Thanks**

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Derek sighed, he knew what was coming he just didn't want to face up to it. He hadn't been able to sleep all night, so had been constantly staring at the clock counting each minute as it went by. It read 5:59am. Just one more minute until he had to get up and start his week all over again. Mondays were the worst of all days. It didn't have anything to do with what the day ahead of him had planned. Just the name, 'Monday', it had such a tired sound to it. Before he knew it that minute had flown straight past, arguably the fastest minute that night.

He quickly jumped out of bed and raced to turn the alarm clock off. The painful ringing echoed through his ear until he reached the alarm and managed to hit the switch. "Derek, I don't want to go to work today. I save lives every day; can't I just have today off?" Meredith mumbled. Derek chuckled in response.

"Can I trust you to get up, or will you fall back asleep again as soon as I leave the room?" Derek questioned.

Meredith stared into Derek's dreamy eyes before responding. "Maybe... If you put a chocolate croissant in the oven for me, then I'll be out of bed by the time its ready." A smile started to spread across Derek's face as he left their bedroom and went towards the kitchen.

He put Meredith's croissant in the oven, as requested, and started to make some coffee. Meredith wondered into the kitchen in record timing and quickly sat down at the table. Derek greeted her with a quick kiss on her soft, tender lips before stroking her hair. She looked up to him and a small smile slid out from the corner of her mouth. Derek just continued stroking her soft hair. "What's wrong?" She questioned.

"I'm fine." Derek insisted. "I just didn't get much sleep last night, I've got a lot of things on my mind at the moment."

Meredith sighed.

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"Christina, have you seen Derek? I need to talk to him." Meredith asked.

"Yeah, I'm about to go into surgery with him, we're in OR 2. Can I help?" Christina replied.

"No don't worry, just tell him to page me as soon as he gets out of surgery."

"We should only be an hour, it's nothing complicated."

"Ok, and tell him not to worry, you know what he's like." Meredith added.

She sighed and started to walk away slowly moving her hand towards her flat stomach. Quickly she took out her pager and paged Lucy Fields. Within a minutes Lucy had received Meredith's page and ran over to her frantically, looking worried.

"What's wrong? Is it something to do with you being pregnant?" Lucy asked.

"No, well kind of, I was just wondering whether I could go back on those fertility pills."

Lucy looked at her worryingly. "So you've just come off some pills that made you eye sight funny, and you want to go back onto the same pills?"

"Pretty much, or are there any other pills that we could try?"

"Well, there's this new pill, but its part of a clinical trial. I'll send them your file, and see if you able to do the trial."

"Ok, when will I know?"

"About a week. But I'll let you know as soon as I find out."

Meredith's pager started beeping, it was Derek.

"Ok, I've got to run, but thank you Lucy. Is it alright if I come back later with Derek to talk things through?"

"Yeah sure, just page me."

Meredith quickly started walking over to the nurses' station, where Derek had paged her. He was already there, with a worried look on his face. "Your surgery was quick." Meredith said.

"Oh, yeah it got cancelled; the OR was needed for an emergency surgery." Derek replied. "Anyway, is everything ok?"

"Yeah, everything is fine, I was just thinking about going back on those fertility pills."

"What the ones that nearly cost you your eye sight?" Derek started to look concerned, his eyes said it all.

"They did not cost me my eye sight, come on Derek it wasn't that bad, I stopped taking the pills and everything was back to normal. Anyway Dr Fields wasn't too keen on my idea either, but she was telling me about this clinical trial, with these new pills."

"And the risks? Are there risks Meredith?"

"I don't know, I didn't have much of a chance to speak to her because I left as soon as you paged me. But I said we'd come back later to talk things through."

"Ok, well we'll go and see her once our shift is over, and we will ask about the risks." Derek said. "I've got to get back to work now, but I'll see you later."

"Ok, page me if you get any good surgeries."

Derek gave Meredith a quick kiss on her forehead before running off to go and catch the lift.

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**Please write a review, I'm not sure if I am going to keep writing this one or start a completely different one. Let me know what you think and if you have any story ideas. Thanks **


	2. Chapter 2  Let the Race Begin

**So I'm not sure about the title for this one, it's a bit weird but I really wanted to publish a new chapter. This chapter is also a bit short, in the future I plan to make the chapters longer but hey at least its something Enjoy and please review**

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"Well, I've been looking into the trial, and so far seven people have had to pull out after experiencing some side effects." Lucy explained.

"How many people have taken part in the trial so far?" Derek questioned.

"Twenty six, so nineteen people have completed the whole trial." Lucy added.

"Seven out of twenty six! No Meredith, I'm not risking it."

"Derek don't be so stubborn, your don't even know what the side effects were." Meredith said.

"Oh, they were nothing serious. Just headaches that went away a couple of days after coming off the pills." Added Lucy.

Derek looked at Meredith with his tired, worried eyes.

"Well I guess we'll try them, but I'm serious Meredith, one little headache and you have to promise you'll tell me."

"Sure, so when will I be able to start with the pills?" Meredith eagerly asked.

Lucy looked down at her clipboard and flicked through the papers.

"Well it looks like your ready for the trial and seeing as they are just pills, it should be quicker than normal to get you started on the trial. I'll send them an email out today and hopefully the you should be able to start with the pills on Wednesday. Seeing as I am qualified to monitor you during the trial, I will be your Doctor. You have to stay on the pills for a month and you need to arrange an appointment with me every 2-3 days, so I can monitor you and just check that everything is going well." Lucy informed them.

Meredith nodded while looking up to Derek.

"Ok, so I'll come and see you on Wednesday then?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah sure, see you then."

Lucy turned to her computer while Meredith and Derek left the room.

"You sure about this Mer? You don't have to do this if you don't want to." Derek asked.

Meredith gazed into his eyes, "Of course I do, and I'm doing it for us Derek, our future, our child."

Derek took hold of Meredith's hand as they started to walk out of the hospital. They drove home through the stormy weather and got into bed for an early night.

"Don't get too excited about this Meredith, there's still a chance this might not work."

"I know, I just have a feeling that this could be it, this could be what helps us on our way to getting a baby."

Derek snuggled up close to Meredith, holding her up against his chest, hoping that she was right.

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"Derek, I might stay over night at the hospital tonight, you know the whole chief resident thing is coming up soon and I wanna get ahead of the game, pull in some extra surgeries."

"Sure, and if you have any spare time, just go and see Lucy quickly, to see whether the pills have arrived yet." Derek added.

Meredith gave Derek a quick kiss on the cheek before running off to the residents' lounge, to get ready for rounds.

"Hey, Mer." Said Christina. "Did I just hear you say you're gonna stay at the hospital over night?"

"What? No way, that means I'll have to stay too." Interrupted Alex.

"What? No, why do you have to stay, I'm only staying to pull in some extra surgeries." Meredith said.

"Yeah, but I don't want to get behind, I've got to keep myself in the race." Alex added.

"Me too. Hey Alex, you think we should stay all night too?" Christina asked.

"Yeah, if Meredith is staying then we've got to stay."

"What! You guys! This wasn't meant to be a group thing. This was so I could get ahead... On my own!" Meredith cried.

"Sorry Mer, but if you're staying, then we're staying too." Christina added.

Meredith sighed, now she would have to fight to get surgeries tonight.

"Wait did someone just say they're staying over night tonight to get extra surgeries?" April interrupted.

"Yeah, Meredith is staying so now me and Christina are staying to." Alex said.

"Well, then I guess I'm staying too." April said.

"Hear that Mer? Now we're all staying." Christina said.

"Apart from Jackson." Meredith added.

"Jackson? Who said my name?" Jackson asked.

"Meredith did, you see, Meredith had already decided that she was going to stay all night at the hospital to get some extra surgeries for chief resident, but then Alex and Christina though they should stay too and I thought I probably should too." April said with a confused look on her face.

"Well I'm on call tonight so I guess I'm staying as well." Said Jackson.

"Well I guess we're all staying then." Meredith sighed.

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**Please review, all reviews are really appreciated thanks**


	3. Chapter 3

**So this is chapter 3, I hope you like it and please review, it's the reviews that make me want to write more :) thank you!  
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"You had any surgeries today?" Christina asked Lexie.

"Me? No, I've just been in the clinic all morning" she replied.

"No surgeries," Meredith said as she put her tray on the table and sat down to eat lunch. "No surgeries, all morning. I haven't even got any scheduled for this afternoon."

"Me neither, I hope something comes in tonight or there's no point staying." Christina said.

Avery put his tray down next to Meredith and took a bite out of his apple. "Yeah well, you guys aren't even supposed to be here tonight, you've all just come along to steal my surgeries."

"Steal you surgeries? Why are you stealing his surgeries?" Lexie asked.

"Well," Meredith started to explain. "You see soon they are choosing the chief resident, so I thought I would stay tonight to get some extra surgeries. But now I'm wondering whether it's worth it. I don't know if there'll even be any surgeries to do tonight."

"So you and Jackson are staying tonight?" Lexie asked.

"No, Christina thought she should stay as well, and so did Alex... And so did April." Meredith added.

"So, you're all staying?" Lexie said. "Well I hope it's worth it."

Meredith sighed as she finished off her lunch. "Are you coming to the clinic Mer?" Christina asked.

"Not if I can help it, first I've got to go and see Lucy."

"Ok, page me if you hear of any good surgeries."

Meredith slowly walked out of the canteen and looked around for Lucy. She soon spotted her by the nurses' station, signing some forms.

"Oh hey Meredith. I was just about to page you." Lucy said while gathering up her papers. "I have everything ready for you. Just follow me."

Meredith followed Lucy into a consult room. "So am I starting the trial today?"

"Yes, you have to take 3 pills a day, one with every meal. So if you take your first one now and then keep taking one with all your meals."

"Ok," Meredith said, after taking a sip of water to help the pill go down. "So, I'll come and see you again in 3 days?"

"Well for the first week or so, I'd rather you came and saw me every day. Just to check everything is going according to plan."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Sure, and remember if you get the slightest headache, then tell me or Derek straight away."

Meredith nodded in response as she left the room. Now all she could think about was getting some surgeries. She caught sight of Bailey walking towards the nurses' station. "Bailey," she called. 

"Grey! I've been looking for you. Can you go to the clinic and help out there for the rest of the afternoon." Meredith sighed; the thought of working in the clinic bored her. "Grey, that wasn't a question. Go, now! Yang is there as well."

When Meredith got to the clinic she quickly spotted Christina treating a patient complaining of stomach ache. She scribbled down a prescription and then went over to talk to Meredith. "You've been sent here too?"

"Yep," Meredith said as her pager went off, "its Derek, I'll be back in a bit."

"Mer you can't just leave me here, he better not be giving you a surgery!" Christina shouted.

Derek was waiting for her in an on call room. "Did you go and see Lucy?"

"Yeah," Meredith replied. "I've taken my first pill already; I have to take one with every meal."

"And how long is this supposed to go on for?"

"Well I have to take the pills for a month."

"Right, ok well let's just hope it works."

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"Are you on call tonight Meredith." Owen asked.

"No, you know it's just this whole chief resident thing, so I'm staying here overnight." Meredith replied.

"Does Christina know about this, because if she did I bet she'd be staying too. But you don't want people stealing you surgeries right. Don't worry I won't tell her anything."

"Tell me anything about what? Oh and by the way I'm staying at the hospital tonight Owen, sorry I forgot to tell you until now." Christina said.

Owen looked at Meredith. "Right, I see."

"Yep, that's right," Meredith said. "Christina found out I was staying so now she is staying and so is everyone else."

"Everyone?" He asked.

"Well everyone in the running for chief resident, me, Christina, Alex, Jackson and April." Meredith replied.

"Well that certainly is everyone, see you tomorrow Meredith."

"Bye Owen." Meredith said as you walked off to find Arizona.

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><strong><br>So yeah, sorry this is kind of a bit of an in-between chapter, not much happens. But please review :) thanks**


	4. Chapter 4

**So yeah i hope you enjoy this chapter Please review thanks, enjoy **

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"Yang, I need you; there's been a fire during a house party. Three people are seriously injured and the ambulance should be here in a few minutes." Bailey called.

"On my way, should I page anyone else?"

"We've got enough people here tonight, no need to bring anyone else in, just page Grey, Karev, Kepner and Avery."

"Will do." Christina replied while pulling out her pager from her pocket.

Soon enough everyone was downstairs waiting for the ambulance to come in. "Finally, some possible surgeries." Avery said.

"Yep, let's just hope there's enough for everyone." April said.

The ambulance pulled in quickly alongside everyone and Alex rushed forward to opened the doors.

"This is one of four ambulances," the paramedic said. "We need to get her into surgery as soon as possible, her BP is low and she is losing blood fast."

The patient looked like she had been in the centre of the fire, her face was completely burnt and she had multiple cuts down her arms. Alex quickly showed that the patient was his, and rushed her off to an OR while everyone else waited for the next ambulance.

"Dr Bailey how many attendings are here tonight?" Meredith asked.

"Well, I am here, Altman is here and Arizona is here." She replied. "Don't you worry Grey, we have enough attendings, plus I think you guys will be able to handle some surgeries on your own if you need to."

Meredith smiled at the thought of even being in an OR. Before she knew it the next ambulance had arrived and April had already shown that it was her patient. This patient didn't look as bad, but still looked as though a surgery might be needed.

By the time the third ambulance had arrived everyone was getting cold and wanted to go inside, but everyone was also very keen on getting a surgery. The third patient looked just as bad as the first one. Scars all up his arms, with glass pointing out some of his wounds. Christina took this patient leaving Meredith and Avery to fight over the last ambulance.

"You see, this is exactly why I didn't want everyone to know I was staying over tonight. Everyone had just stolen my surgeries." Meredith moaned.

"Well I'm on call tonight so actually they've stolen my surgeries and now you are going to steal my last surgery when the last ambulance arrives." Avery said.

"You're right, these are all supposed to be your surgeries, you can have the last ambulance. I'm going to head to an on call room and see if I can get some sleep. There's no point being awake if I'm not doing anything." She said.

The last ambulance finally pulled up in front of Avery and he raced forward just to make sure that this patient really was his. The paramedic soon jumped out of the back of the ambulance only to reveal a standing man with a few small cuts on his arm. "This man needs some stitches in his arm, he right have sprained his wrist." The paramedic said.

Avery looked at the patient disappointedly. He had been standing out in the cold for almost half an hour now and all his patient needed was a few stitches and an x-ray.

[ ]

Meredith woke to Derek's soothing voice. "Mer, its seven o'clock, rounds are about to start."

"Crap." she said as she shot out of bed.

"So, were you sleeping the whole night or did you actually get up to do some surgeries?" Derek asked.

"Well I would have done some surgeries if there were any to do."

"What, you mean nothing came in all night?"

"Oh no, something came in, there were four surgeries in fact. Christina, Avery, Alex and April all got a surgery."

"Oh, well I'm on call tonight so if you want you can stay with me at the hospital and I'll try and find you some more extra surgeries." Derek reassured her.

"I'm too tired; I'll see how I feel later. Ask me again in six hours. I don't want to be late for rounds."

"Ok." Derek said before giving her a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks Derek." Meredith said.

She slowly wondered off to the residents lounge to get ready for rounds. "Grey is that you?" Bailey called.

Meredith turned around. "Yeah."

"Well you're late for rounds! Come on Grey." Bailey said.

Meredith sighed and reluctantly followed Bailey.

"Hey Meredith," Avery whispered as Bailey started rounds.

"How was your surgery?" Meredith asked.

"It wasn't a surgery, just a few stitches and an x-ray." Avery said disappointedly.

"Oh, sorry Jackson I know we kind of all stole you surgeries. I'll page you if I hear of any surgeries today."

"Thanks Meredith, and no worries you gave me what you thought was a surgery anyway."

"Grey!" Bailey shouted. "Stop talking while I'm talking."

Meredith sighed and kept her head down for the rest of rounds.

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**So again, not too much has happened but I wanted to update and I quite like doing filler chapters like this anyway. Just thought I'd let you know that I will be following the show in terms of chief resident, whoever gets it on the show will get it in the story, and yeah... So please review! All your reviews mean so much to me and make me want to write more thanks **

**[ Lucy xx ]**


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